Road Races Undergo Franchising Boom

Does national branding help or hurt local racing communities?

Runners might be among the most individualistic of athletes, and their sport tends to reflect that, especially in the competitive venue of road racing. Not only are there seemingly infinite choices of distances, especially if you're in a tradition-bound area like the Northeast, but the level of sophistication and organization of said races exhibits an almost equally wide variance. You can run everything from highly professional events with chip timing, overflowing expos and goody bags, and signage and entertainment to rival a Super Bowl or World Series, all the way down to local fun runs with little more than a start line chalked on the ground and a few volunteers with popsicle sticks and a stopwatch at the finish.

Such variety provides the spice of our racing life; most of us have entered at least one mom-and-pop race because we were in the area on business or vacation, or because the entry form looked cool, and come away putting it on our list of top-10 lifetime runs. But just as you can have the most incredible meal at some dilapidated roadside diner, it's possible to experience the running equivalent of ptomaine poisoning in a race with a mismarked course, no water stops, and messed up results that take weeks before they're posted–if ever. That may be an acceptable risk if it's a low-key event in your hometown, or a race you're entering just to get in a group run in a strange locale, but not if it's one that requires a considerable investment of time, energy and funds, like a marathon halfway across the country.

Travelers often opt for the bland yet safe familiarity of McDonald's. In the same way, many runners have begun looking for events that offer some race-experience familiarity and consistency, even if that means sacrificing some uniqueness. This attitude has become more prevalent as the racing ranks are swelled by beginning runners. For many of them, the act of covering the distance is challenging and exciting enough; they have neither the need nor the desire to seek something unique that more experienced competitors might want.

In the past decade, there has been a trend for a series of races to project a unified, quality image across their entire lineup, be it on a national, regional or sometimes local level.

The most prominent example is the Rock 'n' Roll series, a franchise of 14 marathons and half marathons spread across the calendar and the country. Beginning with the original Rock 'n' Roll marathon in San Diego, the organizers, Elite Racing, honed and perfected their formula and began to spread, adding races in Nashville and Arizona.

In 2007 a venture capital firm purchased Elite and renamed it Competitor Group, and the increased resources allowed for continued expansion in other parts of the country. As part of this strategy, creation of new events was augmented by partnering with or outright purchasing of existing races, the most notable cases being the Philadelphia Distance Run half marathon and the Mardi Gras Marathon in New Orleans.

"Whether it's creating an event from scratch, purchasing one, or going into partnership, it's kind of six of one, half a dozen of another," says Tracy Sundlun, Competitor's vice president of events. "Each location is unique and you have to find the appropriate strategy. When you've got the opportunity to work with an established race and significant local charity organization, you'd be stupid not to. But taking over an existing event has its own unique challenges," he continues. "It's never a slam dunk."

LOCAL COLOR WITH NATIONAL BRANDING

Perhaps the biggest challenge is rebranding an existing event in the Rock 'n' Roll motif without being seen as discarding the local history and color. "For all the great reasons that a city, community, and local organizer might see to rebrand as a Rock 'n' Roll event–the national marketing muscle, our operational resources–all those are incredibly important, but there has to be a good fit for it to work," Sundlun says. In that sense, Competitor may be more like an IGA than a Walmart: bringing in its own brands while allowing the events to maintain a sense of local identity.

For a new event, Sundlun notes, "You need the local running community to take ownership of the event," adding that the process can take several years. "We're like the circus coming to town–people wonder if we're going to rebook again," he says. "Our second year in Nashville, we had people asking if we were coming back less than two months before the race!"

In February, the rebranding of the 46-year old Mardi Gras Marathon as a Rock 'n' Roll event proved as felicitous a marriage as jambalaya and etouffe. "We'd been toying with the idea of selling the race," says Chuck George, president of the New Orleans Track Club, which has owned and organized the marathon since its inception. "Putting on a marathon with over 7,000 runners was just getting to be too much of a strain on our club, even with 2,200 members–it was negatively impacting the 28 other races we put on. For us it was perfect timing."

The effect was instantly apparent as the races (a half marathon was added to the 26-miler) drew almost 13,000 runners, 85 percent of them from out of town. "Our population is still decimated from Katrina," says George. "Bringing in Competitor and their marketing tapped into New Orleans' natural attraction as a tourist destination–I think in the near future this event can draw 25,000."

FAST ATTENTION/ MASS APPEAL

Beyond building large races for the masses, the Rock 'n' Roll formula calls for a smidgen of class as well, in the form of a few top runners who can turn in fast times and generate local excitement and national attention. In New Orleans the marquee names were Martin Lel and Sammy Wanjiru, who ran the half as part of their training for their showdown over twice the distance in London in April. In the actual race, they were overshadowed by women's winner Berhane Adere of Ethiopia, whose 67:52 was the fastest time ever run on American soil. A similar strategy of bringing in a few elite runners has been employed at previous Rock 'n' Roll races.

"The Majors are playing with budgets of $20 million," Sundlun says. "Their elite budget equals our entire operational budget; there's no way we can match that, but I don't think we have to. If we had five more of each of those folks what good would it have done us?" Maybe none in terms of the goal of telling the media, "We have top elites," but bringing in one or two stars doesn't create a signature event on an international scale like the Majors, one that gathers a field that can be called a championship. In this sense, elite appearances at Rock 'n' Roll are, for now, primarily celebrity appearances during the training interims between championships. Which is not a bad thing as long as people know the difference. The Rock 'n' Roll events know, and consider it an advantage that they exist primarily in secondary media markets. "With the exception of Chicago and LA, we're the biggest dogs in town," says Sundlun. "We're the ING New York City Marathon of that region."

Sundlun realizes that while the elites might garner the attention, it's the thousands of runners behind them who pay the bills, and the Rock 'n' Roll franchise has perfected a format that continues to attract huge numbers of the masses, often setting first time or regional race-size records. Bands every mile on the course and a post-race concert, extensive goody bags before and refreshments after the event, and an overall "fun" and upbeat attitude are the hallmarks of every Rock 'n' Roll event.

They also make no secret of appealing to first-time charity runners, and have even formed official partnerships with several groups. The fields at most Rock 'n' Roll races swell with charity runners clad in team gear, a fact that some more "serious" runners have cited to devalue the events as true athletic endeavors. "Five to six years ago that whole debate about encouraging slower runners to participate came up," says Sundlun. "My response was we should look to include, not exclude, people. There's just no reason for it."

But in spite of Sundlun's assertion of "what harm does it do to have people behind you?" the larger fields such events attract can't help but create challenges with transportation, pre-and post-race amenities, as well as running room on the course itself. Does the brand offer anything for the competitive citizen racer? They would argue a strong yes. The key organizational elements of these events–timing, on-course aid stations and mile splits, registration and results systems, etc.–are first-class and consistent, and faster runners are given seeded corrals near the front. Still, serious "local elite" level runners might find themselves better served at smaller events, where their opportunities for unimpeded pre-race routines, on-course elbow room, and post-race recognition are all better, if they don't mind missing the big-crowd, big-event hoopla.

NOT THE ONLY BRAND ON THE BLOCK

While the Rock 'n' Roll events are the largest and best known, they aren't the only national series that maintains a brand image throughout. The 13.1 Marathons, a series of themed half marathons, was debuted last year by U.S. Road Sports and Entertainment Group, which has produced races in Chicago, Georgia and Florida. And the concept of branding events can be effectively executed on a regional or even local level as well.

In Connecticut, the Hartford Marathon Foundation has leveraged the expertise and reputation of its flagship event to expand to a series of 24 events throughout the year. "I've really just sensed that we've become a definite, recognizable brand in the last two years, that being an HMF event is important to runners," says Beth Shluger, the group's president. "It took 15 years to get to that point."

Having achieved that, "we make sure we protect and promote our brand," she says, noting that all HMF equipment, banners, and printing hew to a consistent, planned standard. That even extends to some outside events they manage as contractors. "We used to just focus on the race itself, but if our name is on it, people think it's our race, so everything–registration, post-race food, and so forth–has to meet a certain level of quality. Over the years we've developed systems and procedures that give us consistency, so if we apply them all the time, hopefully the results will be the same."

Perhaps nowhere is that philosophy embodied more fully than at the New York Road Runners, which besides its major events like the ING New York City Marathon and women's Mini 10K, conducts smaller (if 5,000-plus races can be considered small) races almost every other weekend of the year. In the past decade, these events have benefited from some of the procedures developed for the mega-races, and developed a consistent look and feel.

"We've made a conscious effort to create a brand presence in all our events," says NYRR CEO Mary Wittenberg. "That's in signage, operations, scoring–everything. People can come to a Road Runners race and know what to expect."

But having a recognizable brand, even on a national scale, isn't always a guarantee of a high-quality event being conducted under its aegis. In the last decade, Devine Racing Management gained notoriety more for its failures in promoting races in Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. While most of the problems were financial and involved vendors and elite athletes being paid late or not at all, there were some organizational and operational issues that affected the average runner, and the bad publicity ultimately resulted in the demise of the company and its events, some of which have resurfaced in the Rock 'n' Roll stable.

THE END OF MAIN STREET?

There is also the question of whether having a national juggernaut like Rock 'n' Roll come into an area hurts the existing local events, much in the way Home Depot tends to put local hardware stores on the ropes. However, the opposite seems to be the case.

"Our long-distance races had increased participation, and that was without much time to promote or tie them in to the marathon," says New Orleans' George. "I think ultimately they're going to grow even more." And the appearance of a branded race can serve as an impetus to existing local events that may have grown complacent. To compete with a national brand race's marketing muscle, smaller events will have to raise their game, much as a grocery store will change its offerings to distinguish itself from a national chain outlet that moves into town.

Still, such branded events have their detractors, or at least those who find the races' formulae to be too slick and "corporate" for their tastes. Some in New Orleans expressed concern about Rock 'n' Roll usurping the unique local "Mardi Gras" brand and making it less a "pure" local event, and similar criticism may be heard in Philadelphia this September when the Distance Run officially becomes a Rock 'n' Roll half.

Similarly, while few would question the quality of NYRR races, the group's near monopoly on events in New York does draw complaints from some who feel NYRR exhibits a "take it or leave it" attitude.

But in the end, the proliferation of the trend of branding races seems to be a win-win situation for runners, as they find an ever-expanding choice of nationally or regionally linked events as well as increasing quality from existing local races, as competition should drive higher quality in the local events that remain. Clearly, as the number and diversity of runners continues to grow, the race organizing world is responding in kind, creating more and different competitive outlets every day.